Ep. 7 The Analogue Era

In this episode of The Unquiet Library: 50 Years of Robarts Library, host Jesse Carliner explores Robarts’ pre-digital era through oral history interviews with current and former librarians. Margaret Wall describes processing 340 legacy CD-ROMs (plus cassettes and floppy disks) and determining whether their contents evolved into print or online databases, noting the convenience of today’s searchable platforms compared with swapping annual discs. Former chief librarian Carole Moore recalls card catalogues wired for phone reference, heavy photocopy demand, and the chaos of shared print journals and interlibrary delivery. Sean Meikle details intensely manual circulation work with charge files, typed loan cards, pneumatic tubes, book elevators, and noisy conveyor belts. Susanne Tabur explains serials “Kardex” tracking of roughly 30,000 journal titles and daily mail processing, while Debbie Green recounts research via print indexes, microfilm/microfiche catalogs, and early staff-mediated online, CD-ROM, and DIALOG searches.   00:00 Opener with Margaret Wall  02:07 Episode Introduction  03:14 Carole Moore- Phone reference and the card catalogue; sharing print journals  07:55 Sian Meikle—Library circulation during the analogue era  14:12 Susanne Tabur—Tracking print journal subscriptions with the Kardex  23:31 Debbie Green—The pre-digital research process  28:55 Conclusion    Robarts Library 50th anniversary exhibit: http://uoft.me/robarts50  Learn more about the pre-digital library What is a card catalogue? Library catalog - Wikipedia  What is the Kardex system for managing serials? https://lis.academy/management-of-library-and-information-centre/library-serials-management-periodicals-journals/#kardex-system   What is a microfiche/microfilm catalogue? https://lis.academy/organising-and-managing-information/microform-catalogues-space-saving-library-solutions/   What is a periodical (journal) index? What is a periodical index? - LibAnswers  What is the DIALOG search system? Milestones:DIALOG Online Search System, 1966 - Engineering and Technology History Wiki  What is a CD-ROM? CD-ROM - Wikipedia    Theme music:   Felipe Sarro, Bach-Siloti - Prelude BWV 855a  Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication    Sound credits:  2 08 Br Lib amb 5.wav by ERH -- https://freesound.org/s/51632/ -- License: Attribution 4.0      Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.